As Earth Month comes to a
close and we send off the last few packets of activist swag, it’s fitting that
our stack of factsheets on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is rapidly dwindling. We are fast approaching
the 2015 deadline to achieve these eight indicators of global poverty reduction
and development gains, and the D.C. and international communities are looking
back to gauge our success.

It's encouraging to see
enormous progress in meeting some of these goals: we've halved the number of
people living on less than $1.25 a day, bolstered enrollment in primary
education in the developing world, and increased access to lifesaving HIV/AIDS
treatment worldwide. Yet the goal of achieving universal access to reproductive health (MDG 5a) has seen the smallest amount of
progress.

During an interview with a Florida radio station about the dangerous working conditions for undocumented Latino workers, the story of one of the listeners who called in got us all on the edge of our seats.

He told us his job consisted of being lowered into a huge hospital waste collector to unclog the drain, which fills with syringes, hypodermic needles, used dressings and a long list of other medical waste. He added his only protections were rubber boots, a paper mask and a helmet with a flashlight to light up the belly of the monster where he worked.

Asked why he did not look for a less dangerous job, he answered, “I can’t. I don’t have papers. And if I don’t work, my family back home won’t eat.”

In the US, there are at least 11 million undocumented workers who —contrary to the myth that they come to America to live off welfare— are willing to work in whatever job to escape the abject poverty that expelled them from their countries in the first place. And that “whatever job” all too often constitutes a clear and present danger to their health and security.

If Latino voters suffer the consequences of pollution and environmental degradation in such disproportionate numbers, it’s obvious that for those 11 million undocumented workers quietly living in the shadows of society, that percentage will be much higher.

Which begs the question: Who wants to abandon family, friends and culture, then risk their lives to travel to a hostile country with the almost certainty that, once there, they will be considered criminals?

“By establishing an equitable path to citizenship, we can empower those in our society who are most vulnerable to toxic pollution to fully participate in our democracy, fight back against polluters and demand public health protections and clean energy solutions,” said Allison Chin, Sierra Club president.

These booming numbers are just a sliver of a broader success story: the amount of solar energy powering homes, businesses, and federal buildings has increased by a whopping 600 percent since 2008. And in March, all (that's right, ALL) new utility energy capacity came from solar. The facts are clear: solar power is a key producer of jobs and clean energy today.

It's essential that the amount of energy the United States gets from solar and other renewables continues to grow, especially as we work to transition beyond dirty fossil fuels. Every kilowatt hour of solar power produced in the United States is sparing us from toxic, climate-disrupting emissions from coal, oil, and gas. Americans know how important this is: according to a recent Gallup poll, 76 percent of Americans want more emphasis placed on solar energy production. The poll found solar and wind to be the most popular forms of energy in the U.S., with coal and other fossil fuels stuck floundering at the bottom.

The Obama administration and state governments should listen to the large majority of Americans who want clean energy and double down on solar while protecting important renewable energy incentives. Programs in New York and other states are a positive step, but there are still strong headwinds to overcome. As forces clash over budgets in Washington, D.C., and state capitols across the country, our elected leaders must take solar jobs, and their potential to grow, to heart. If we invest in solar, even more jobs will come.

April 26, 2013

The Edwards coal plant in Peoria, Illinois, will have a lot
to explain thanks to a lawsuit that highlights more than 1,000 Clean Air Act
violations. At a press conference last week, nearly 20 volunteer leaders and
clean-air advocates gathered to spell out the violations, which have happened
over the past five years. One of the speakers was a relatively new supporter,
Robin Garlish (pictured), whose three children have respiratory problems.

"We're wondering if it will even be safe for our family
to go outdoors and enjoy bicycle riding," Garlish said. "We have a ski boat, we
have a lot of friends and do our water sports. I'm afraid to take us out to do
these things at this point."

The Beyond Coal Campaign was joined by the group Peoria
Families Against Toxic Waste and the League of Women Voters in demanding
pollution controls that will prevent the coal plant from sickening more people.
Sierra Club Organizer Kady McFadden said if controls aren't put in place, the
plant should retire.

"If it can't be done, then the plant should be shut down," she said, as reported by Peoria Public Radio. "Either of these is an acceptable option, but what's not
acceptable is to continue to push the costs of operating dirty plants onto the
community in the form of sickness. Or to transfer the plant to someone else
that they can do the same thing."

The same day, the local NAACP chapter had voted unanimously
to join the coalition.

"This is a big milestone for central Illinois, and for our
movement. We are looking forward to this partnership, and to begin talking
about the concept of environmental justice for the first time ever in Peoria," McFadden said.

Activists later in the day organized the area’s first town
hall focused on the coal plant. A presentation on the health effects of the
plant was followed a 30-minute question-and-answer session.

"We heard stories of sickness exacerbated by the plant," said McFadden, "as well as coal dust and ash build-up on windows, homes and
cars." She said the Beyond Coal campaign hopes to host more town halls in the
near future. On Wednesday, the American Lung Association released its annual "State of the Air"report. The report found that in Peoria County, more than 11,000 adults and 3,000
children cope with asthma and nearly 50,000 people have cardiovascular disease.

April 24, 2013

People lined up at 7am to get on the testimony list and attendees estimated that fewer than 20 spoke in favor of the massive proposed dirty tar sands pipeline. Sierra Club and allies received RSVPs from 18 states! People affected by the 2010 tar sands spill in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and by the recent tar sands spill in Arkansas also showed up to speak.

"This measure was passed unanimously by both house of the state legislature and represents 15 years of work by the community," said Sierra Club organizer and longtime NEC champion Camilla Feibelman, below at microphone with the governor. "Permanent protection of this incredible natural treasure is the best possible birthday gift for the chapter, which celebrated its eighth anniversary in January."

Next to Feibelman in the red hat is Angel Berrios, a community leader in the Coalition to Protect the Northeast Ecological Corridor, of which the Sierra Club was a founding member.

Among the Sierra Club activists who have fought longest and hardest for protection of the NEC is Carmen Guerrero Perez, who was nominated and sworn in by Governor Padilla this January as Puerto Rico's Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources. That's Perez below at right, celebrating the victory.

The signing took place at the Eighth Annual Leatherback Turtle Festival (Festival del Tinglar), an event put on by the Sierra Club and the Coalition for the NEC in the town of Luquillo, the "gateway" community to the NEC.

"Today, with the signing of this law, we honor and acknowledge the respect that this natural reserve deserves," Governor Padilla said at the signing ceremony.

Puerto Rico environmentalists, including many who would join the Sierra Club's newest chapter when it was officially formed in 2005, have fought for 15 years against plans by developers to build two mega-resorts, four golf courses, and 4,500 luxury homes in the Corridor.

"We're extremely pleased that the NEC is finally protected by law," Feibelman told theEl Nuevo Dianewspaper. "We've always had support from the three political parties, but there have been obstacles along the way. With the governor's signature, we are finally fully protecting the NEC as a Nature Reserve."

April 22, 2013

Indianapolis families gathered for a "Clean Energy Showcase" at The Nature Conservancy earlier this month for a focused look into the city's energy future. The event, which included a NCAA March Madness theme, featured presentations and a breakout session that weighed the economic and public health benefits of clean energy and forecasted which types of energy investments might advance "to the next round."

The event was organized in light of Indianapolis Power & Light's proposal to raise rates to fund alterations to old, dirty coal plants instead of clean-energy investments. Nearly 70 Indianapolis residents attended the showcase with about half of the participants being new to the issue, said Indiana Beyond Coal Organizer Megan Anderson.

"This is a really exciting time where across the nation communities are moving away from their outdated and polluting coal plants and moving toward a clean energy future," she said.

If IPL gets its way, it could cost Indianapolis-area families over $511 million and would lock the city into a coal-dependent future with higher rates and expensive health costs due to pollution.

"Tonight’s event showed the direction that Hoosiers want to take our city in. Indianapolis is the capital, and in a state where we tend to burn a lot of coal, we have a responsibility to set an example, move Indy beyond coal, and put our city on a path toward an affordable, sustainable energy future. IPL has a responsibility to this city. If we want a world-class city, we need to move toward clean energy," Anderson added.

April 19, 2013

Vickie Simmons of the Moapa Band of Paiutes in southern Nevada has known more than her fair share of loss. Her brother died, far too young, after working for years at the Reid Gardner coal-fired power plant, which sits immediately adjacent to the Moapa Paiute reservation. Several of her best friends on the reservation have also died too young, mostly from cancer or respiratory ailments, and many others, including her son, are sick.

And Vickie knows the cause—toxic pollution from the Reid Gardner plant, which she has been working for years to clean up or shut down. "I've seen so many people in my tribe suffer from debilitating respiratory ailments like asthma and sudden nose-bleeds from living and working near the plant," she says. "All of us have family members who've gotten sick or died. People's bodies aren't holding up. It feels like a ghost town sometimes."

Vickie serves on the Health and Environmental committees for the Moapa Band. Last year she and fellow tribal activists Calvin Myers and Vernon Lee worked with the Sierra Club to organize a three-day, 50-mile Cultural Healing Walk from the reservation to the federal building in Las Vegas, culminating in an Earth Day rally.

The purpose of the healing walk, which attracted participants from tribal nations and other supporters throughout the Southwest, was to draw attention to the devastating health effects of coal pollution on the Moapa Paiute community and call for Reid Gardner's retirement. It was also, Vickie says, "a memorial walk for all our friends and family members who have died."

The tribe has organized a 16-mile Coal to Clean Energy Walk on Saturday, April 20, from the Reid Gardner plant to the site of a large-scale solar project planned to be built on Moapa Paiute lands. Construction is expected to begin this year on what will be the largest solar project on tribal lands in the nation. The city of Los Angeles announced last month that it will purchase energy from the Moapa solar project as part of L.A.'s commitment to get off coal by 2025.

April 15, 2013

Kimberly Wasserman, a 35-year-old mother of three from Chicago, is the North American recipient of the 2013 Goldman Environmental Prize. The world's largest prize honoring grassroots environmentalists, the Goldman is awarded each year to one recipient from each of the world's six inhabited continental regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America.

Wasserman was recognized for helping lead local residents in a successful campaign to retire two of the country's oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power plants—the Fisk and Crawford plants on Chicago's Southwest Side—and she is now helping transform old industrial sites in the city into parks and multi-use spaces.

Before the announcement of the plants' closure, Chicago was the only U.S. city with two coal-burning power plants within its city limits. Wasserman's organization, the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), has been a strong partner with the Sierra Club and the Club's Beyond Coal Campaign as part of the Chicago Clean Power Coalition, whose top priority for nearly three years was retiring the Fisk and Crawford plants.

Wasserman was born and raised in Little Village, a densely populated neighborhood of about 100,000 mostly Latino residents on Chicago's Southwest Side, where the Crawford plant is located. The Fisk plant sits in the adjacent Pilsen neighborhood, another mostly low-income Mexican-American community.

After her son began having asthma attacks in 1998 at the age of three months, Wasserman made the connection that pollution from the two coal plants was directly responsible for the disproportionate health problems plaguing the two neighborhoods—a connection later confirmed by a Harvard School of Public Health study.

Going door-to-door in Little Village, Wasserman discovered an alarming number of respiratory problems, premature deaths, miscarriages, and infant mortality. After joining the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, she partnered with a neighborhood group in Pilsen, public health associations, policy groups, and environmental organizations like the Sierra Club to form the Chicago Clean Power Coalition.

For the last 15 years, Wasserman has been raising awareness about the health dangers posed by Fisk and Crawford, leading protests, performing street theater, and lobbying public officials to retire the two polluting facilities. With limited resources, she helped form a strategic alliance of faith, health, labor, and environmental groups to build momentum for the Chicago Clean Power Ordinance, which called for Fisk and Crawford to clean up their emissions or shut down.

In the fall of 2012, Wasserman's decade-and-a-half-long battle succeeded when the local utility, Midwest Generation, announced that the two plants would be closed. Both ceased operations last September, ahead of schedule.

Wasserman is now using the skills she gained over her 15 years as a community organizer to train the next generation of organizers and help other disenfranchised communities fight for environmental justice. The Sierra Club salutes Kimberly Wasserman for her courage, her vision, and her commitment to improving the lives and the health of her community.

April 10, 2013

On April 8, the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) won a legal challenge against proposed fracking operations in California. A federal judge ruled that federal authorities broke the law when they leased 2,700 acres of BLM land in Monterey and Fresno counties to oil and gas drillers without considering the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.

"This important decision recognizes that fracking poses new, unique risks to California's air, water, and wildlife that government agencies can't ignore," said Brendan Cummings, senior counsel at CBD, who argued the case for the plaintiffs. "This is a watershed moment—the first court opinion to find a federal lease sale invalid for failing to address the monumental dangers of fracking."

"The court recognized that fracking is different from the oil and gas development that California has known thus far," said Nathan Matthews, the Sierra Club's lead attorney on the case. "The BLM argued that oil and gas production on these leases would be no different from what they have seen in the pre-fracking past, with the same level of production and same types of environmental impacts. The court recognized that fracking and modern unconventional production have changed the game."